Favorite Foreign Film(s)!*

I wonder where Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence fits in to all this? A Japanese director, English, Scottish and Japanese lead actors, set in Japan, filmed in New Zealand, and dialogue mostly in English.

 

Here are some of my personal favouurites:

Bicycle Thieves
Solaris
Cinema Paradiso
The Intouchables
The Lives of Others
The Invisible Guest (Contratiempo)
The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos)
The City of God
Oldboy
Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos)
Pan's Labrynth (El laberinto del fauno)
Amelie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor)
Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella)
Seven Samurai
Ran
Children of Heaven
The Seventh Seal
Rang De Basanti
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Memories of Murder

Im definitely forgetting a few. You guys seen any of these? Any recommendations?

 

Love in Thoughts (Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken) (2004)
Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los amantes del círculo polar) (1998)
Vacas (Cows) (1992)
In a Year with 13 Moons (In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden) (1978)
All Things Fair (Lust och fägring stor) (1995)
Claire's Knee (Le Genou de Claire) (1970)
The Swimming Pool (La Piscine) (1969)
She Spent So Many Hours Under the Sun Lamps (Elle a passé tant d'heures sous les sunlights...) (1985)
Rendez-vous (1985)
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez vos mouchoirs) (1978)
Head-On (Gegen die Wand) (2004)

 

Seen any? Most of my favorite films were made outside of the good 'ol USA. Nice list you've got. Certainly can't go wrong with most Bergman and Kurosawa. My other choices for favorite directors (w/suggested films) born outside of America are

Kenji Mizoguchi (Ugetsu)
Andrei Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublev)
Luis Buñuel (Viridiana)
Warner Rainer Fassbinder (Ali:Fear Eats The Soul)
Paul Cox (Vincent)
Béla Tarr (Damnation)
Carol Reed (Odd Man Out)
Robert Bresson (Pickpocket)
Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum)
Pier Paolo Pasolini (Mama Roma)
Aleksandr Sokurov (Mother And Son)
Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali)
Yasujiro Osu (Tokyo Story)
Gillo Pontecorvi (Battle of Algiers)
Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion)
Krzysztof Kieslowski's (Dekalog)
Carl Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc)
Fritz Lang (M)
F.W. Murnau (Sunrise)
Mira Nair (KamaSutra)
Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother)

 

a separation
amelie
amores perros
barabbas
blow up
cache
cinema paradiso
city of god
dancer in the dark
downfall
good bad ugly
il postino
irreversible
let the right one in
life is beautiful
pan’s labrynth
talk to her
the triplets of belleville
the wages of fear
three colors trilogy – Red White Blue
wings of desire

 

Good thread.
I've seen most on your list.

 

I haven’t seen a lot of foreign films, but I do really like Pan’s Labyrinth. I don’t know if this counts since a lot of the actors are American, but I also love Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy.

 

Rocky I-Rocky II...Adrian!!!

 

Luis Bunuel
Federico Fellini

Were my two favourite European directors in the seventies.

 

From my POV, basically ANY film is foreign since the majority of releases here are of US or UK productions^^

Anyway, taking your rules, I'll say:

Au revoir, les enfants
Il grande silenzio
E dio disse a Caino
Django
La Haine
¡Atame!
Festen
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo
Adam's Apples
Valhalla Rising
Fitzcarraldo
Nosferatu, the Vampyre
Aguirre, Wrath of God
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
The Loft (2007, the belgian version)
As It Is In Heaven
The Hunt

 

I almost started this thread a few days ago, I'm glad someone got on it. To me, generally speaking, European or Foreign cinema is a notch above American cinema. Some of my favorites are:
A Prophet, great French crime movie about a young half Algerian who is introduced to prison life the hard way. He comes under the control of a Corsican Mafia gang who run the prison, and little by little, gains control over them.
Downfall, a German movie about the last days of A.H. Great cast.
The Memory of a Killer, a Belgian movie about an old hit-man who is starting to battle Alzheimers disease, with one last job to fulfill.
The Lives of Others, A compelling political film about the police state that was East Germany.
Walk on Water, an Israeli film about a Mossad officer who is assigned the task of befriending the grandchildren of an elderly Nazi, then killing the bed-ridden man when the opportunity arises.
The Vanishing, a Dutch film, has got to be one of the greatest psychological thrillers I've ever seen. Forget the Jeff Bridges/Sandra Bullock/ Keifer Sutherland remake, this one is much better.
Waltz with Bashir, An animated Israeli film about a man trying to reunite with his comrades who all took part in the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Great war story.
The General, Brendan Gleason stars as Martin Cahill, an Irish criminal.
I'm not entirely sure that this one is a foreign film as it was directed by John Malkovich, but The Dancer Upstairs is an excellent political/war thriller about the rise and downfall of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency in Peru. Javier Bardem stars.
okay thanks...

 

Nice list, The Three Colors Trilogy and Downfall are great. Been meaning to watch Irreversible but I've heard that there are some extremely violent scenes.

 

Yeah you're right. Great list by the way, glad to see Fitzcarraldo and The Enigma of Kaspar Hausen here. The Hunt is currently at the top of my list of films I need to watch.

 

Nice list, thanks for giving a bit of info about each film. Out of these I've seen Downfall, The Lives of Others and The Vanishing and loved them all. You're right about The Vanishing, although I watched it years ago it definitely had a huge impact on me. You'll never find movies like that in Hollywood. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Nice, any suggestions of other films to check out?

 

Great list, nice to see Satyajit Ray in there. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Your Welcome. My list was twice as long but after 30 minutes they booted me off. Ha. Can't go wrong with that sampling, anyway. Cheers.

 

Anything by Kurosawa, Bergman and Haneke really

 

Been meaning to watch a few of these on your list. Thanks.

 

La Strada
Black Sabbath
Eyes Without A Face
Amarcord
Le Passager De La Pluie (Rider On The Rain)
Who Could Kill A Child
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Queimada (Burn)
Suspiria
Belle De Jour

 

love Manon!

 

Tale Of two Sisters...remade in the US as The Uninvited.

 

Man, I know these are classics revered by cineastes the world over but all of them catch me nodding halfway through! Gonna try to make it through Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West tonight - and put a pillow over my ice cream.

 

A Prophet
Beijing Bicycle